Information is the lifeblood of every company, so it’s critical to ensure that all data is accurate, securely stored and easily retrieved.

In
today’s well-named “Information Age,” we are totally dependent on data in both
our personal and professional lives. No matter what we need or want to know, we
can find it by searching the Web, getting an RSS feed, checking the corporate
database, logging on to various social networks, emailing or texting a
colleague, or—for the more traditional individuals among us—reading a newspaper
or magazine.

That
dependency can cause problems, but the difficulty isn’t caused by the
information itself. It’s caused by the enormous volume of information that’s
available, as well as the ways in which we find, categorize, store, secure,
access and disseminate data.

In
our cover story, “Riding the Information Wave”,
contributing writer Sam Greengard reports on two related technologies—business
intelligence and business analytics—that can help resolve some of the problems
caused by the massive amounts of structured and unstructured information
organizations must manage. With these technologies, enterprises can
“substantially boost their return on technology and business investments,” says
John Lucker, a principal at Deloitte Consulting.

BI
and BA tools pull data from a wide variety of sources, including business
applications, corporate databases, financial ledgers and R&D documents, as
well as unstructured data from emails, instant messages, podcasts, videos and
social networks. This data can then be consolidated, analyzed and pulled into
reports to uncover trends and patterns that can help spot business
opportunities.

In
short, BI and BA systems can turn mounds of unrelated data into targeted,
relevant information that can be used to make good business decisions. So why
aren’t more companies taking advantage of these tech tools?

One
of the problems is that these technologies can be complicated for IT to
assemble and less than intuitive for businesspeople to use. But that’s changing
as the technology continues to improve and a growing number of executives
recognize the value of these tools.

Another
data-related problem is not as easy to resolve: the misuse of information. That
takes many forms, and it’s often caused by people rather than technology. An
obvious example is when employees input inaccurate information into their
company’s database, either by mistake or deliberately to get back at their
employers. Or they store data in the wrong electronic file. In other
situations, data is lost through human or technical error—or a natural
disaster—and wasn’t backed up properly.

These
problems can be fixed with the right technology and the right policies.

Sadly,
there’s another category of information misuse that involves a lack of ethics
and supervision. The most recent example is the phone-hacking scandal of Rupert
Murdoch’s News of the World, in which the paper’s reporters invaded the voice
mails—and the privacy—of hundreds, possibly thousands, of people.

And
the potential for such abuse continues to grow as the volume of information
increases at a dramatic rate. In “A Data Governance Primer” ,
author Jill Dyché writes, “Standard industry intelligence says that corporate
data volumes double every 18 months, but mobile and online data are growing at
an even faster clip.”

Clearly,
as more individuals gain access to information, there are more chances for that
information to be misused. So it behooves business and technology executives to
implement policies and technologies to protect their company’s data, which, in
turn, will protect their employees, customers, business partners and, in cases
like the News of the World scandal, the broader population.

Jill
Dyché also notes that “Data should be owned by the business, which
circumscribes its definition, rules, access and usage policies.” That includes
providing oversight, managing risks and assessing compliance. She adds that “IT
has a role to play as well … in the tactical execution of data governance
policies and decisions.”

It
has become obvious that combining information and advanced technologies without
providing ethical guidelines and policies for their use is a recipe for
disaster. It’s a failure of leadership—of accountability—that goes right to the
top of the organization.